June 25, 2026 / by Aerial Edge / In circus-training

How to get the splits as an adult (and actually use them)

This article sets out a realistic approach to getting the splits as an adult, and what it takes to make a split you can actually use on an apparatus. It is written for adults.

Yes, you can get the splits as an adult. The idea that the window closes in childhood is wrong. Adults gain range of motion at any age, and a 2012 systematic review of flexibility training in older adults bears it out even into the sixties and seventies (Stathokostas et al. 2012). What changes with age is the pace and the recovery time, not whether it is possible.

There is a question worth asking before you start: what kind of split do you actually want? Most people picture the floor, with the hips down and both legs flat. That is the photo people aim for, but it isn’t the whole skill. A split you can only sink into passively, held up by gravity and the floor, is a passive position. A split you can sit in under control, that holds when something loads it, is an active one. At Aerial Edge we train the second kind, because that is the one you can use.

Touching the floor isn’t the same as holding the split

Holding a split on the floor with your hips fully supported and holding a split in the air on an apparatus are very different demands. In the air the muscles and connective tissue may have to support forces well above your own bodyweight, often right at the edge of your range. Range that gives way the moment it’s loaded isn’t much use on silks or a hoop.

This is where most generic flexibility advice stops short. It chases the floor with more stretching, deeper holds, the photo. Getting your hips to the ground is only part of the skill; you also need strength through that range to use it.

The thing that turns raw range into usable range is strength at the end of that range. End-range strength is the ability to control and produce force in a position that is already near the limit of what the joint can reach. It is what makes a split holdable rather than just touchable. It is also the best-evidenced injury-prevention idea in the whole field: building strength with the muscle under load at long length lowers strain-injury risk. In a prospective study of elite footballers, players with shorter muscle fascicles were several times more likely to suffer a strain, and eccentric work at long muscle length both lengthens fascicles and lowers re-injury rates (Timmins et al. 2016; Marušič et al. 2020). So the strength work isn’t a separate project bolted onto your stretching. It is the part that makes the range yours, and the part that protects you while you get there.

Active over passive, and why that’s the bigger lever

Passive flexibility is range produced by an outside force while you relax into it: gravity, a partner, a long warm-up. Active flexibility is range you produce by contracting your own muscles to move into the position, and it can be loaded.

For gaining raw range, a 2023 systematic review with meta-analysis has the methods coming out roughly even. Active, static and PNF stretching all raise range of motion, and no one of them clearly wins (Behm et al. 2023, Sports Medicine - Open 9:107; PNF-versus-static comparison, PubMed 28182516). So why put more weight on active work? Because for gaining usable range, the range you can hold when something loads it, active and loaded work clearly wins. It builds the strength and control through the new range, which is exactly what a holdable split needs.

Passive work still earns its place. Gravity, partner stretches and long warm-ups all build range, and passive stretching isn’t dangerous. It is just incomplete on its own. So the answer to “active or passive?” is a mix, with more emphasis on active.

One more thing worth clearing up: strong and flexible are not opposites. The old folklore that stretching makes you weak or lifting makes you stiff is gone. Full-range resistance training builds flexibility comparably to stretching (Afonso et al. 2021, Healthcare (Basel) 9(4):427; strength training and stretching are not statistically different for range of motion). You can be both. You will feel a temporary dip in strength for half an hour or so right after a long, intense passive stretching session; that is real, and it passes.

You dose by your own response, not a fixed daily number

The advice to stretch a set amount every single day, or to push the same routine no matter what, gets a lot of people hurt or stuck. There is no fixed weekly cap that is right for everyone. The dose-response evidence is genuinely mixed: returns plateau somewhere around 5 to 10 minutes per muscle per week for general flexibility, and the strongest meta-analysis found no clear dose-response at all (Warneke et al. 2023). It explicitly noted its findings may not apply to people chasing extreme range, like gymnasts and contortionists. Two adults doing the same minutes get different results, because training history, individual make-up and recovery all change the outcome.

So the better approach is to dose by how your body responds. Start at a sensible minimum and watch how you answer:

• You are gaining range and recovering well, no nagging soreness. Your body can take more. Add a little: more time in the position first, then more sets, then more frequency. One change at a time, then read the response again.
• Range has stopped moving for a few weeks. Don’t just pile on minutes. Change the lever first, and check the basics: sleep, life stress, other training. A plateau is usually a recovery limit, not a dose one.
• Soreness lingers, range goes backwards, or a joint hurts. Back off. Take a lighter week. Pushing through is how a stretching habit turns into an injury and weeks off.

That last point is the one to take seriously: stretching should feel like gentle tension in the muscle, never pain in the joint. At Aerial Edge we coach stretching to gentle tension, never into pain. Pain in the joint means stop and reassess, not push harder.

And gains are not linear. A lot of the early progress is your nervous system raising its tolerance to the stretch rather than tissue actually lengthening, so don’t expect a visible jump every session. Concentrating on one or two targets at a time, over a couple of months rather than a couple of weeks, beats spreading yourself thin across every position at once.

What changes if you’re starting later

Age is a real factor, but it works differently than people assume. Older adults still gain range and still respond to strength work through that range (Stathokostas et al. 2012). The ceiling doesn’t drop. What shifts is the climb: you add load more slowly and you rest a bit more between hard sessions, because older tissue recovers over a longer window. Most people starting later are stiffer rather than looser to begin with, so patience and a longer warm-up do more than aggressive pushing.

If you are picking this up in your fifties, sixties or seventies, that is its own piece: can you get flexible in your 50s, 60s and 70s? goes into it properly. A couple of general health notes apply too. If you have had a hip or knee replacement, respect the range limits your surgeon or physio gave you and do not force the joint to its maximum depth, and if you are unsure about any of this, get it checked before you load it hard.

What to do next

Here is the short version. Adults can get the splits. Aim for an active, holdable split rather than passively sinking into the position under gravity: getting your hips down is only part of it, and end-range strength is what makes the range yours. Mix passive and active work, with more emphasis on active. Start low, add only while you are gaining and recovering well, and back off the moment soreness lingers or a joint hurts. Give it months, not weeks, and expect a non-linear climb.

What this article gives you is the approach, not a day-by-day routine. The actual progressions, the specific drills, how they sequence, how much for your body, are what a coach works out with you in the room, because the right dose is individual and it changes as you do. If you want to train your splits with people who coach exactly this, our adult flexibility classes are where the step-by-step progressions happen.

A few related reads if you want the principles underneath this: does stretching actually prevent injury?, strength training for aerial: where beginners should start, and can you get flexible in your 50s, 60s and 70s?

References and further reading

• Behm DG, Alizadeh S, Daneshjoo A, et al. (2023). Acute Effects of Various Stretching Techniques on Range of Motion: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis. Sports Medicine - Open 9:107. doi:10.1186/s40798-023-00652-x. Active, static and PNF are roughly even for acute range of motion. Pair with the PNF-versus-static comparison at PubMed 28182516. (Thomas E et al. 2018, Int J Sports Med 39(4):243–254, supports the frequency and weekly-volume point, not the “roughly even across methods” point.)
• Timmins RG, Bourne MN, Shield AJ, Williams MD, Lorenzen C, Opar DA (2016). Short biceps femoris fascicles and eccentric knee flexor weakness increase the risk of hamstring injury in elite football (soccer): a prospective cohort study. British Journal of Sports Medicine 50(24):1524–1535. Shorter muscle fascicles predict higher strain risk; longer fascicles are protective.
• Marušič J, Vatovec R, Marković G, Šarabon N (2020). Effects of eccentric training at long-muscle length on architectural and functional characteristics of the hamstrings. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports 30(11):2130–2142. Eccentric training at long muscle length lengthens fascicles.
• Warneke K et al. (2023). Chronic effects of stretching on range of motion with moderating variables. Mixed dose-response, and the extreme-flexibility-population caveat.
• Stathokostas L et al. (2012). Flexibility training and functional ability in older adults: a systematic review. Range stays trainable into older age.
• Afonso J, Ramirez-Campillo R, Moscão J, et al. (2021). Strength Training versus Stretching for Improving Range of Motion: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Healthcare (Basel) 9(4):427. doi:10.3390/healthcare9040427 (PMID 33917036, PMC8067745). Strength training and stretching are not statistically different for range of motion; strong and flexible are compatible.